Nov 24 2008
I Call ‘Em as I See ‘Em: Firing Managers Midseason
A trend that seems to have been sweeping sports these past few years is the firing of coaches and managers in the middle of a season. I’m not talking about when a manager is in the last year of his contract and at the All-Star Break, the team decides to announce he won’t be back next year. That’s fine. In fact, it helps keep the manager and players focused on the game because there aren’t a bunch of rumors sweeping around. No, what I’m sick and tired of is owners handing a manager walking papers and naming an interim manager.
The latest instance of this that got me really fired up was when the Milwaukee Brewers fired Ned Yost. Here was a manager that that was with the team as they changed from a perennial bottom feeder to a playoff contender. He helped break Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun into the big leagues. Then he gets canned.
Why? Because apparently having 1 1/2 sub-par Septembers in a row is reason to get the axe. In the 2007 season, the Brewers were leading their division in September. Unfortunately, they ended up losing the division to the Cubs and not making the playoffs. This is obviously Ned Yost’s fault. It couldn’t have been the fact that it was a team made up of budding young stars, and it most certainly couldn’t have been the pressure on these young men to bring their team back to the playoffs in decades.
Then this past season, as the season was winding down, with only 12 games left, the Brewers fired Ned Yost. They felt he was going to betray them again. Well, the ploy seemed to work, as the Brewers did indeed capture the Wild Card and make the playoffs.
This was obviously because they rid themselves of Yost. The Mets (a team that ironically also switched managers mid-season) second consecutive last-season collapse had nothing to do with that. It’s all the manager’s fault. Get a new one, and you’ll win games.
I’m not saying that there’s no reason to fire a manager mid-season. If he doesn’t have the respect of the players, he doesn’t show up and do his job, he bets on the game, go for it, fire him and with conviction. But because the team isn’t winning enough games? Don’t fire one man because it’s easier than trading 25 players.
Until next time, I’m hittin’ the showers.
your toes must be awfully pruney at this point.